The Mütter Museum Skull Wall: The Story of the Hyrtl Skull Collection

Josef Hyrtl, who lived from 1810 to 1894, was an anatomist in Vienna. In his time a theory called phrenology was popular. It held that the shape of a person's skull revealed their intelligence, their personality and even supposed differences between groups of people. Phrenology has long been discredited, and Hyrtl was one of the scientists who pushed back against it.

His method was simple and patient. He gathered skulls from people across Central and Eastern Europe, people who in the categories of that era were all classed together as "Caucasian." If skull shape really sorted people into types, those skulls should have looked alike. They did not. The collection shows a wide range of shapes and sizes within that one group, and Hyrtl used that variation to argue that the form of a skull could not support phrenology's claims. The Mütter Museum describes the collection today as an attempt to counter phrenology.

So, when people ask who collected the Mütter Museum skulls and why, the answer is a Viennese anatomist making a scientific case, one skull at a time. Our story on the phrenology skull covers the theory he was arguing against.

The people represented on the wall came mainly from Central and Eastern Europe. The records use the political map of the 19th century, naming places in areas later associated with Austria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Italy and their neighbors.

What makes the collection unusual is how much is known about many of the individuals. According to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, many skulls carry or keep records of the person's name, age, place of birth or origin, religion, occupation and cause of death, and sometimes who donated the remains. The museum's own description highlights age, place of origin and cause of death. The details are uneven from skull to skull, but together they make the wall a gathering of individuals.

The College gives two examples. One was a tight-rope walker who died from a broken neck. Another was Francesca Seycora of Venice, who died of meningitis. The words written on the old labels come from the 19th century and reflect how people were described then, so they are best read as historical records of their lives.

If you have ever wondered how much a skull alone can tell about a person, our page of human skull facts is a good companion to this story.

In 1874 the College of Physicians of Philadelphia completed negotiations with Professor Josef Hyrtl and bought the 139 skulls. A Philadelphia physician, Thomas Hewson Bache, traveled to Austria while the talks were underway. A contemporary account, cited in later medical-history writing, gives the price as 6,410 Prussian thalers, about $4,800 at the time.

The skulls were shipped from Vienna and joined the museum's growing 19th-century medical collections. The College's archival records describe the 1874 purchase as the end of those negotiations, and the skulls have been in Philadelphia ever since, about a century and a half.

The Mütter Museum grew out of a 19th-century medical teaching collection. Its purpose was to preserve real anatomical and pathological specimens, meaning examples of the body and of disease, so physicians and students could learn from them. The Hyrtl skulls came into that collection as a study of comparative anatomy, a way to see how human skulls differ from one another.

Today the museum presents them within the history of medicine and the care of human remains. The skulls once served an argument about science; now they also tell a story about how museums treat the people in their care. Another famous skull with a medical story behind it is told in our page on the Phineas Gage skull.

In 2023 the Mütter Museum began asking hard questions about its own collection. New leadership started an ethical review after recognizing that the museum had no specific policy for human remains, and that the provenance and life history of many specimens were incomplete. Provenance means the record of where something came from and how it was acquired.

While the review was underway, the museum temporarily took down its online exhibits and hundreds of YouTube videos, looking again at acquisition history, accuracy, tone and display. The museum said its goal was to become a more ethical and respectful steward of the human remains in its care.

The review turned into a public conversation. On October 17, 2023, the museum held a town hall with community members, former staff, museum professionals, patients and supporters. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, about 75 people attended the first town hall, and their views differed sharply. Some described the museum as a place where they could recognize their own medical conditions, and argued for keeping real remains on view with better context. Others raised consent, historical injustice and the dignity of the dead, and questioned displaying remains taken without clear consent.

That conversation became the Postmortem Project, which ran from October 17, 2023, through September 1, 2025, with a dedicated Postmortem exhibition that opened in May 2024. At its close, the museum said it will keep displaying human remains while adding context about their provenance and history. It announced updated policies on acquisitions, photography, research and exhibition, and said nearly 400 videos removed during the review would return once reviewed.

The same questions are being asked at museums across the United States and beyond, and our story on the repatriation of human remains follows how other institutions are answering them.

The Hyrtl Skull Collection is on permanent display at the Mütter Museum, 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia. These details are as listed on the museum's official visitor pages in October 2026; check the official hours and admission page before you go, because they can change.

• Hours: Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum lists extra Tuesday hours, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., from June 16 through October 27. It closes on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
• Admission: $25 for adults; $23 for seniors, military visitors and students with valid ID; $20 for youth ages 6 to 17; free for children 5 and under.
• Tickets: Advance tickets are recommended, especially on weekends, and admission is limited to 50 guests per half hour.
• Age guidance: The museum recommends the visit for ages 10 and up, because some displays include human remains, traumatic injuries, genitalia and disfiguring conditions.
• Photos: Photography and video are not allowed in the galleries. The museum's visitor guidance explains this as respect for the real people in the collection.
• Bags and food: Large bags, luggage and strollers are not permitted, and food and drink are not allowed in the galleries.

The skull wall sits at the meeting point of medicine, science and memory. For the theory Hyrtl set out to disprove, read about the phrenology skull. For what careful study of a skeleton can tell about a life, see what bones tell archaeologists. And for places where skulls are kept as memorials, from chapels to charnel houses, try our story on ossuaries around the world.